slip a little
by Glue Project
Summary: Songfic to 'Everybody's fool'. Katsuya-centric. Is there anyone who can save him? Before he falls off the edge he's clinging to? [EDITED SLIGHTLY, ONESHOT] [continued in 'Post Two']


Title: slip a little  
Author: Glue Project  
Rating: PG13ish for theme.  
Pairings: hints at SetoJou  
Spoilers: Um...that Malik exists, has the Rod, and that Seto was an ancient High Priest. Yup. That's it.  
Disclaimer: I don't own the song, 'Everybody's Fool' sung by Evanescence. Also don't own Yuugiou. Only the Holland Lop Plot Bunny of D00M!! D00M I SAY!  
Summery: Songfic to 'Everybody's Fool'. Jou's been slipping into pit of despair (sort of). Is there anyone who can save him? Before he falls off the edge he's clinging to?

(Re-posted for glaring spelling errors and slight emendations in text. Really, I _did_ read it before I posted it last time.)

--Flashbacks-whathaveyou--

* * *

_ slip a little, slip a little, further, lovely, slip a little, slip a little, further..._

Jou blinked up with hazy eyes at the edge of the building above him. He couldn't remember how he got there. He found that he didn't much care.

All that somewhat concerned him was staying on the brink of the building and not falling below it.

Somewhat concerned, and that was all.

All he felt now was a detached sense of pain and sorrow.

Very detached.

Almost to the point that he could barely tell that it was there anymore.

His eyes took in a blurring picture before they faded into a watercolor wash of memory.

--Kaiba Seto strode through the hallways of the school, his superior air hanging around his shoulders like a cloak. It wasn't his manner of dress that set him apart, (as it was a school uniform) but instead his seeming indifference to the teachers and glares that he sent his fellow students.

All in all, his attitude alone set him apart.

That was what drove the rest of the students to flock around him, as if by just being _graced_ with his cold-mannered presence was enough to tip the hand of Fate in their favor.

As if by just acting like him, they could become as successful as him.--

Katsuya slipped a little further each day.

Now he was only hanging onto the building by one hand, the sandstone grating and deteriorating underneath his thin, pale fingers.

* * *

Perfect by nature  
Icons of self indulgence  
Just what we all need  
More lies about a world that

* * *

His friends never noticed that he took a step back each day, getting closer and closer to the edge of disaster.

_Brink of demise_, a little voice whispered into the back of the blonds mind.

He disregarded it, fingers losing more contact with the surface of the building.

They never noticed that he had never been happy.

_Ever_.

--Blue coat billowing without the aid of wind, blue eyes cold, without the aid of reason...--

Jou slipped down a little further.

* * *

Never was and never will be  
Have you no shame don't you see me  
You know you've got everybody fooled

* * *

It took him a while to realize that Kaiba's cold, frozen demeanor was just an act, a mask so perfect that even his own brother didn't know the difference.

_slip a little, slip a little, further, lovely, slip a little, slip a little, further..._

The school followed Kaiba without question. The CEO was perfect, no flaws in his frozen façade.

Jounouchi was the only one to figure out that Kaiba wore a mask, such as his own.

And wore for the same reason.

_So as to not get hurt._

* * *

Look here she comes now  
Bow down and stare in wonder  
Oh how we love you  
No flaws when you're pretending  
But now I know she

* * *

He found it kind of hard to fight with the brunet after that.

That was when Jou's bigger steps away, to the edge, started to happen.

He learned a sense of respect for the blue-eyed, teenage CEO.

The other never reciprocated those feelings.

_ slip a little, slip a little, further, lovely, slip a little, slip a little, further..._

There was nothing Jounouchi could do to gain a smidgen of approval from the other, or even put a stopper in the spout of insults that flowed so easily from the other's mouth.

Jou had reached out for help and had his hands pushed away, having it denied that there was anything wrong in the first place.

* * *

Never was and never will be  
You don't know how you've betrayed me  
And somehow you've got everybody fooled

* * *

Katsuya hid further under his mask of false happiness.

That was good enough to fool his 'friends'.

Maybe, if he believed in it hard enough, he would believe it.

Someday.

He was the only one who noticed that the flickers of the _real_ Kaiba Seto were falling under the mask, being smothered by its oppressive waves.

The other couldn't get out of this either.

At least Jou had tried.

Then again, Jou didn't have a corporation resting on that icy demeanor.

* * *

Without the mask where will you hide  
Can't find yourself lost in your lie

* * *

The thought that Kaiba was strong in the middle of the maelstrom of life was something of a comfort to Katsuya.

That is, until Kaiba showed him the _real_ him, taking down the mask for a few precious moments.

That was just enough for Katsuya to lose all hope that either could ever survive.

_That_ was when Katsuya lost all hope that the other would ever be safe. From anything. From everything.

When Katsuya stepped to the edge and looked below with questioning eyes at the darkness that threatened him from there.

_slip a little, slip a little, further, lovely, slip a little, slip a little, further..._

* * *

I know the truth now  
I know who you are  
And I don't love you anymore

* * *

Katsuya had tried so hard not to fall...but now he didn't care.

Didn't care at all.

He dimly heard the running footsteps across the sandstone floor. Didn't acknowledge it though.

No one was here. No one cared.

No one had cared enough to be here in a long while.

He was just imaging the face that peaked above the edge with a stuttering breath. Imagining the frantic hand that wrapped around his own in order to pull him up.

_slip a little, slip a little, further, lovely, slip a little, slip a little, further.._.

"_No_," Katsuya mumbled in a raspy voice.

* * *

Never was and never will be  
You don't know how you've betrayed me  
And somehow you've got everybody fooled

* * *

"No," he whispered again. He braced one weak foot against the sandstone wall in order to help him out of the frantic and tight grasp.

"Katsuya!" The voice was blurred, like liquid choking the speaker before fully getting the words out. "Katsuya!" A male's voice, anxious and worried. For _him_.

'Lie,' his brain said. 'No one cares now. If they did, they would have stopped this then when there was still a chance.'

_Still a chance..._

The hand that was trying to pull Katsuya's limp form up was sweaty, slippery, and doing its best to keep him up from the insanity below.

Katsuya's eyes cleared before he slipped out of the others grip.

While falling down, he whispered, "Bye, Seto."

* * *

It never was and never will be  
You're not real and you can't save me  
Somehow now you're everybody's fool

* * *

"Dammit." Seto turned his cold glare to Malik, the Egyptian fiddling with the Millenium Rod and shifting under the former High Priest's glare.

He ran his thumb nervously on the wing that flared out from the sphere at top of the Item. "I did my best..."

"Why didn't you help him? Any of you?"

His question was directed to the rest of Jou's friends that sat in chairs scattered around the small and cluttered room.

Malik fidgeted again. "You were the only one his subconscious let in." He winced as the blue eyes bored into him again. "I couldn't even get in his mind with the Rod."

Seto just gave a final glare and got up. His coat snapped as he turned abruptly, walking away from the 'sleeping' boy on the bed and the friends that ringed him.

Later, Seto stood at the edge of a sandstone building. He jumped over it and into the dark depths without any regrets.

Well, one.

"Goodbye, Mokuba."

_Hello._

* * *

Well, that's where it ends. At least this part. I have started to type up the next, which will be posted as a new story. It's kind of like a 'if-you-didn't-like-that-ending,-try-this-one' deals. It'll be called 'Post Two'.

--Glue


End file.
